Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism

Art since 1900 demonstrates a similar belief in the exhibition's promise, emphasizing, in particular, its public life. It is interesting, in fact, to note that the authors themselves foreground the value of exhibitions to their collective intellectual project. Pointing out in the first sentence of the "reader's guide" that the book is "organized as a succession of important events," the authors go on to explain the many ways one might approach Art since 1900, each of which will "suit the particular needs of individual readers" (p.

12): from the national to the transnational, from media (including newer modes, such as photography) to themes (mass media) and methods (social history, psychoanalysis). Among these possibilities, the authors suggest that the reader "follow the history of the art exhibition, from the Paris Salons before World War I, through the propagandistic displays of 1937 ... to the postwar forms of blockbuster exhibition and international survey." This is but a hint of the exhibition's key role. Of the book's 107 chapters, 60 specifically highlight exhibitions, either in the running titles or in one of the accompanying boxes--and this number does not include instances when exhibitions are mentioned but not headlined. Those exhibitions headlined in chapter titles include Kazimir Malevich's 0.10: The Last Futurist Exhibition (1915), the first public exhibition of the Bauhaus (1923), El Lissitzky's Demonstration Room (1926), Film und Foto (1929), International Exhibition of Surrealism (1942b), the first Gutai exhibition in Japan (1955a), Les magiciens de la terre (1989), and Utopia Station at the Venice Biennale (2003), to mention just a few. In these and in the numerous other examples, the exhibition is presented either as a spark that ignites a series of historical events or as a representation of broader challenges to the aesthetic status quo. Appearances range from in-depth analyses of the circumstances, players, works exhibited, significance, and so on to brief mentions in passing (these are sometimes too brief). Headlining the "1920" chapter, the Dada Fair "situated itself at the intersection of a critical revision of traditional modernism, on the one hand, and a manifest embracing of the new synthesis of avant-garde art with technology on the other.... But more specifically, Berlin Dada also stood in radical opposition to the local avant-garde, namely the hegemonic model of German Expressionism" (p. 168). For "1946," Jean Dubuffet's exhibition "confirms the existence of a new trend": the intense criticism of "Mirobolus, Macadam, and Cie" "points to a particular nexus of postwar Paris": collective shame, self-righteousness, political epuration (p. 337). The discussion of the Art Deco exhibition in Paris (1925) begins not with a glowing review of the show, a statement of its importance, or a mention of the key exhibits but instead with an artist's disdain: Aleksandr Rodchenko writes, "As for this famous Exposition, it's probably not worth seeing it. They built such pavilions! Even from afar they are ugly and from close it's an horror" (p. 196). Such a beginning piques the reader's curiosity: Why discuss something that was such a travesty? What we learn is that the exhibition functions as a way into the competing political, economic, social, and aesthetic interests of the day, from the criticism of "glitzy" excesses in times of belt-tightening to national anxieties about competition from abroad.